The BootstrapSolar Chi-qoo is an Open Source KickStarter-funded battery charger kit for recharging or powering small electronic devices like smart phones, iPads, Kindle tablets, Arduino boards, EL wire, and others. It comes as an easy-to-assemble DIY kit that only requires a screw driver and some glue to put together, and does not require any soldering. The kits are partially manufactured and packaged at TechShop in California.
What you'll need:
A Chi-qoo Kit -- The kits are available for purchase from the BootstrapSolar website, but since it's Open Source, you could theoretically make your own from scratch too!
#1 Philips Screw Driver -- That's the "+" type, and a pretty small one.
Glue -- Any glue that works with wood. Standard wood glue will work, though "5 minute" epoxy probably offers the best balance between bonding strength, time to undo mistakes, and curing time.
Time -- Most folks have reported finishing the kit in an hour or less (and as little as 10-15 minutes for those who are handy).
What you'll need:
A Chi-qoo Kit -- The kits are available for purchase from the BootstrapSolar website, but since it's Open Source, you could theoretically make your own from scratch too!
#1 Philips Screw Driver -- That's the "+" type, and a pretty small one.
Glue -- Any glue that works with wood. Standard wood glue will work, though "5 minute" epoxy probably offers the best balance between bonding strength, time to undo mistakes, and curing time.
Time -- Most folks have reported finishing the kit in an hour or less (and as little as 10-15 minutes for those who are handy).
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Signing UpStep 1: Check your components
Make sure you have all the parts. You should have:
Enclosure parts
6x wall sections (thin bamboo sections)
1x USB port bezel (says "USB 2" and "i-devices")
1x DC port bezel (says "A" and "B")
1x bamboo bottom plate
1x plastic top plate
Electronic components
1x 6000mAh Lithium Polymer battery
1x USB charger circuit
1x Solar charger circuit
1x Double-ended cable
Small parts
4x roll pins
16x 3/8" #2 screws
1x jumper
Enclosure parts
6x wall sections (thin bamboo sections)
1x USB port bezel (says "USB 2" and "i-devices")
1x DC port bezel (says "A" and "B")
1x bamboo bottom plate
1x plastic top plate
Electronic components
1x 6000mAh Lithium Polymer battery
1x USB charger circuit
1x Solar charger circuit
1x Double-ended cable
Small parts
4x roll pins
16x 3/8" #2 screws
1x jumper
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Send me an email at ryo-at-bootstrapsolar.com and I can give you a discount code if you decide to go this route.
I did a test to try to find the limits of this weak airlift technique and I pumped easily 13 ft high without finding the limit! This means that your thing might have applications as a cheap well pump in 3rd countries if it powers a bubble pump with solar and DC. Another guy got 16 ft without finding th limit.
My experiment is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKtB1YKoMxk The airlift pump nano is based on a suggstion from Eileen (who is one of my youtube friends and who was mentioned in a ted talk by Britta Riley of windowfarms. )
So if you show your device pumping water higher than 16 ft by airlift as per the experiment, you might have some extra business!
Sorry for being long winded.
Brian
i will try something when i receive my kit :)
But, as you point out, you won't be able to buy the exact same battery pack from other sources. However, you could replace it with any other 3.7V LiPo/Li-Ion cell that fits in the enclosure and has a JST PHR-2 connector (which is pretty common).
As for the lifespan, LiPo battery packs will retain approximately 80% of their capacity for up to about 1000 recharging cycles, but there's a lot of variability so I don't think that number is very useful. Since my kits come with 6000mAh batteries (which is about 4-5x the capacity of most cell phone batteries) it'll still give you a useful amount of capacity even if it deteriorates to 50%. Many commercial products in the same price range only come with 3000-4000mAh to start with.
I would encourage people to assemble the kits using the supplied parts first. In reality, the metal screws included in the kit do a pretty good job of securing the boards. The screws are actually slightly larger in diameter than the screw holes, so the threads bite into the soft metallic lining of the screw holes. Once assembled, the boards shouldn't wiggle, and should not pop loose even if the battery pack is dropped.
Would using a machine screw and nut be *more* secure? Absolutely. But most people probably won't need to swap out the parts from the stock configuration.
On step 4 and 5, I would probably use some painters tape on the bottom and top pieces so that when I glue in the USB and DC port panels, I guarantee I won't accidentally glue them to the top/bottom pieces. Once the glue is set, I could temporarily remove the top/bottom and remove the painters tape for a perfect fit.
On step 7 and 8, you write on 3 to secure the screws. Looking at the images, it appears you have wood screws directly tapping the circuit boards. Wouldn't it be better to use a machine screw with a nut (and maybe a nylon washer)? You designed it, so if you say the screw fits well I'll take your word for it! :-)
That's all my comments right now, hopefully I'll have a lot more when I receive my kit!
As for the choice of screws, I think machine screws with nuts would definitely be more secure, but I was worried about people dropping tiny nuts into exposed circuitry and risk shorting something. Perhaps that's not really an issue since the circuits shouldn't be powered until the end... I'll look into this for future revs.
I'll probably replace those screws on the kit I receive since I might end up modifying it a bit. Thanks for putting this together!
I just wanted to ask, where do you get the charging circuits?
I saw the circuits on your webpage but it was .sch and I can't read that file.
Can you save it in a different format?
Thanks.
http://www.cadsoftusa.com/downloads/?language=en
I didn't put solar panels on the battery pack cover for two reasons:
1) A solar panel small enough to fit would not generate a meaningful amount of power, even using the most efficient cells commercially available.
2) It could cause the battery pack to heat up unnecessarily, which reduces the battery's lifespan and possibly even damage it.